Punjab is often treated in both media and scholarship as a perennially conflicted region, but this is only a fraction of a more complex story of coexistence between multiple religious groups. Among ...
More

Punjab is often treated in both media and scholarship as a perennially conflicted region, but this is only a fraction of a more complex story of coexistence between multiple religious groups. Among the stages upon which interreligious interaction takes place are the myriad shared sacred sites that proliferate from Multan to Malerkotla. This chapter is an examination of effective interactive choreography at three shared sites, illuminating modes, systems, and strategies of exchange that substantively contribute to, or detract from, the production and perpetuation of peace. It focuses on the ritual, narrative, and administrative arenas of exchange that are produced and grounded in shared sacred sites. All three sites are in Punjab with clientele and custodians who are from various religious backgrounds: one is a dargah (tomb shrine of a Sufi saint), another is a shrine memorializing a Sufi saint's presence in the region, and the last is a maseet (mosque).Less

Post-Partition Pluralism : Placing Islam In Indian Punjab

Anna Bigelow

Published in print: 2012-03-08

Punjab is often treated in both media and scholarship as a perennially conflicted region, but this is only a fraction of a more complex story of coexistence between multiple religious groups. Among the stages upon which interreligious interaction takes place are the myriad shared sacred sites that proliferate from Multan to Malerkotla. This chapter is an examination of effective interactive choreography at three shared sites, illuminating modes, systems, and strategies of exchange that substantively contribute to, or detract from, the production and perpetuation of peace. It focuses on the ritual, narrative, and administrative arenas of exchange that are produced and grounded in shared sacred sites. All three sites are in Punjab with clientele and custodians who are from various religious backgrounds: one is a dargah (tomb shrine of a Sufi saint), another is a shrine memorializing a Sufi saint's presence in the region, and the last is a maseet (mosque).

This introductory chapter sets out the book's purpose, namely to explore the politics of the “choreography of sacred spaces” within the framework of state-society relations and to examine the ...
More

This introductory chapter sets out the book's purpose, namely to explore the politics of the “choreography of sacred spaces” within the framework of state-society relations and to examine the positions, roles, and agency of various actors and institutions in an attempt to differentiate between the political and the religious features of the shared or contested space. It seeks to understand whether sharing and contestation are politically or religiously motivated. The chapter then discusses the three main areas of research that this book explores. It starts with issues of coexistence that are fundamental to understanding the kinds of arrangements that can be found within shared sacred sites and the consequences of those arrangements. It then examines characteristics of shared sacred sites, including narratives, centrality, and indivisibility, to underscore how such features are theorized in the literature. Finally, it discusses the various ways in which state-society relations, state structures, and the impact of state policies contribute to sharing sacred sites.Less

Introduction

Elazar BarkanKaren Barkey

Published in print: 2014-11-11

This introductory chapter sets out the book's purpose, namely to explore the politics of the “choreography of sacred spaces” within the framework of state-society relations and to examine the positions, roles, and agency of various actors and institutions in an attempt to differentiate between the political and the religious features of the shared or contested space. It seeks to understand whether sharing and contestation are politically or religiously motivated. The chapter then discusses the three main areas of research that this book explores. It starts with issues of coexistence that are fundamental to understanding the kinds of arrangements that can be found within shared sacred sites and the consequences of those arrangements. It then examines characteristics of shared sacred sites, including narratives, centrality, and indivisibility, to underscore how such features are theorized in the literature. Finally, it discusses the various ways in which state-society relations, state structures, and the impact of state policies contribute to sharing sacred sites.

This chapter seeks to document the complex nature and choreography of Bosnian Muslims' relations with holy sites in the context of debates on sacred landscapes in the Balkans and the Mediterranean. ...
More

This chapter seeks to document the complex nature and choreography of Bosnian Muslims' relations with holy sites in the context of debates on sacred landscapes in the Balkans and the Mediterranean. It shows that these sacred sites are not necessarily venerated, worshiped, or shared by Muslims strictly as members of an ethnoreligious group. On the contrary, these sites in Muslim Bosnia entail a complex nexus of (power) relations cutting across multiple scales. The sacred sites in the Central Bosnian highlands assemble female and male, village and urban Muslims, or Sunni Muslims and dervishes of divergent cults. Yet the sites are intricately entangled in the state-level bureaucratic field as their administration, and thus their appropriation, involves the Islamic Community (IC), international Islamic organizations, and the state.Less

Contested Choreographies of Sacred Spaces in Muslim Bosnia

David Henig

Published in print: 2014-11-11

This chapter seeks to document the complex nature and choreography of Bosnian Muslims' relations with holy sites in the context of debates on sacred landscapes in the Balkans and the Mediterranean. It shows that these sacred sites are not necessarily venerated, worshiped, or shared by Muslims strictly as members of an ethnoreligious group. On the contrary, these sites in Muslim Bosnia entail a complex nexus of (power) relations cutting across multiple scales. The sacred sites in the Central Bosnian highlands assemble female and male, village and urban Muslims, or Sunni Muslims and dervishes of divergent cults. Yet the sites are intricately entangled in the state-level bureaucratic field as their administration, and thus their appropriation, involves the Islamic Community (IC), international Islamic organizations, and the state.

In Jerusalem's walled Old City, the Muslim and Jewish site of the Haram al-Sharif/Temple Mount is central to both religions, and to the conflict. In addition to religious institutions, the area is ...
More

In Jerusalem's walled Old City, the Muslim and Jewish site of the Haram al-Sharif/Temple Mount is central to both religions, and to the conflict. In addition to religious institutions, the area is filled with residential and commercial structures, places of everyday life; Tariq al-Wad, or al-Wad Street, is an active example. This chapter explores how al-Wad Street has become a new arena of conflict in Jerusalem. It concentrates less upon political policy than upon the cultural construction of the various sites and artifacts in the market street that both emerge from and enable intense levels of popular partisan political participation. It reflects not a polarization of sacred and profane but more nuanced conditions at the boundaries of the sacred, where religious practices and beliefs permeate mundane situations and everyday acts. In contrast to this environment, the chapter also considers a recent attempt to interpret an archaeological site, known as the Western Wall Tunnel, as a holy place. This relatively new creation has been isolated from these quotidian settings and delineated from the world of the street. There we find a contrasting mode of intervention for asserting religious and national claims beneath the major holy places.Less

At the Boundaries of the Sacred : The Reinvention of Everyday Life in Jerusalem’s Al-Wad Street

Wendy Pullan

Published in print: 2014-11-11

In Jerusalem's walled Old City, the Muslim and Jewish site of the Haram al-Sharif/Temple Mount is central to both religions, and to the conflict. In addition to religious institutions, the area is filled with residential and commercial structures, places of everyday life; Tariq al-Wad, or al-Wad Street, is an active example. This chapter explores how al-Wad Street has become a new arena of conflict in Jerusalem. It concentrates less upon political policy than upon the cultural construction of the various sites and artifacts in the market street that both emerge from and enable intense levels of popular partisan political participation. It reflects not a polarization of sacred and profane but more nuanced conditions at the boundaries of the sacred, where religious practices and beliefs permeate mundane situations and everyday acts. In contrast to this environment, the chapter also considers a recent attempt to interpret an archaeological site, known as the Western Wall Tunnel, as a holy place. This relatively new creation has been isolated from these quotidian settings and delineated from the world of the street. There we find a contrasting mode of intervention for asserting religious and national claims beneath the major holy places.

This chapter explains the dramatically different outcomes of two sieges conducted in the course of combating India's Kashmir insurgency: one of a historic mosque in an urban setting, and the other of ...
More

This chapter explains the dramatically different outcomes of two sieges conducted in the course of combating India's Kashmir insurgency: one of a historic mosque in an urban setting, and the other of an ancient shrine in a rural milieu. The first siege, that at the Hazratbal mosque in the capital city of Indian-controlled Kashmir, ended peacefully. The siege of the shrine of Sheikh Nooruddin Noorani, a Sufi saint, however, ended in a bloody conflagration culminating in the destruction of the shrine. It is argued that the markedly different locations of the two religious sites partially explain the different outcomes of the two sieges. The Hazratbal mosque, located in the heart of Srinagar, promptly attracted the attention of the national government in New Delhi, which granted an able civilian administrator to handle the negotiations while allowing the military to maintain a vigilant posture. The Charar-e-Sharief shrine, on the other hand, was located near the Line of Control (the de facto international border) in Kashmir and therefore was removed from significant political attention. This situation led the military and local police forces to adopt a more unyielding posture toward the insurgents. The demographic composition of the insurgents in the two sites also played a vital role in shaping the final outcomes.Less

A Mosque, a Shrine, and Two Sieges

Sumit Ganguly

Published in print: 2008-09-29

This chapter explains the dramatically different outcomes of two sieges conducted in the course of combating India's Kashmir insurgency: one of a historic mosque in an urban setting, and the other of an ancient shrine in a rural milieu. The first siege, that at the Hazratbal mosque in the capital city of Indian-controlled Kashmir, ended peacefully. The siege of the shrine of Sheikh Nooruddin Noorani, a Sufi saint, however, ended in a bloody conflagration culminating in the destruction of the shrine. It is argued that the markedly different locations of the two religious sites partially explain the different outcomes of the two sieges. The Hazratbal mosque, located in the heart of Srinagar, promptly attracted the attention of the national government in New Delhi, which granted an able civilian administrator to handle the negotiations while allowing the military to maintain a vigilant posture. The Charar-e-Sharief shrine, on the other hand, was located near the Line of Control (the de facto international border) in Kashmir and therefore was removed from significant political attention. This situation led the military and local police forces to adopt a more unyielding posture toward the insurgents. The demographic composition of the insurgents in the two sites also played a vital role in shaping the final outcomes.

This chapter explores toleration and coexistence in three interrelated sections. First, it rethinks the conceptual language of coexistence, toleration, and violence in order to apply them to the long ...
More

This chapter explores toleration and coexistence in three interrelated sections. First, it rethinks the conceptual language of coexistence, toleration, and violence in order to apply them to the long history of Ottoman pluralism, where toleration set the stage for centuries of coexistence in various religious, legal, and social contexts. Second, it explores key debates on the sharing of sacred sites and discusses how to bring some of the analytic dimensions used in the toleration discussions to bear on sacred sites. Third, it analyzes the historical circumstances that provided the context for the sharing of sacred spaces in the Ottoman Empire. The chapter then demonstrates that during the reign of the Seljuk and Ottoman empires the larger context of toleration and accommodation to diversity, especially of Christians across the frontiers, promoted the sharing of sacred sites between Muslims and Christians. While churches and monasteries were often converted to Islamic buildings, mixed worship became the rule in many places as openness to the other was encouraged by state authorities. Ottomans made a concerted effort to build institutions that were inclusive of the diversity of the empire, often positioning their foundations within reach of Christians and Jews.Less

Religious Pluralism, Shared Sacred Sites, and the Ottoman Empire

Karen Barkey

Published in print: 2014-11-11

This chapter explores toleration and coexistence in three interrelated sections. First, it rethinks the conceptual language of coexistence, toleration, and violence in order to apply them to the long history of Ottoman pluralism, where toleration set the stage for centuries of coexistence in various religious, legal, and social contexts. Second, it explores key debates on the sharing of sacred sites and discusses how to bring some of the analytic dimensions used in the toleration discussions to bear on sacred sites. Third, it analyzes the historical circumstances that provided the context for the sharing of sacred spaces in the Ottoman Empire. The chapter then demonstrates that during the reign of the Seljuk and Ottoman empires the larger context of toleration and accommodation to diversity, especially of Christians across the frontiers, promoted the sharing of sacred sites between Muslims and Christians. While churches and monasteries were often converted to Islamic buildings, mixed worship became the rule in many places as openness to the other was encouraged by state authorities. Ottomans made a concerted effort to build institutions that were inclusive of the diversity of the empire, often positioning their foundations within reach of Christians and Jews.

This chapter examines two important operations waged by Indian security forces to counter Sikh insurgents operating in India's northern state of Punjab, from the late 1970s to the early 1990s. The ...
More

This chapter examines two important operations waged by Indian security forces to counter Sikh insurgents operating in India's northern state of Punjab, from the late 1970s to the early 1990s. The first operation was a military as well as a public-relations debacle. The Indian Army had inadequate and flawed intelligence about the strength and capabilities of the insurgents who had entered and occupied the Golden Temple, and they failed to forge a viable public-relations strategy and ultimately used excessive force to prevail. Fortunately, the Indian state was capable of learning from its initial errors. When Sikh militants again attempted to use the temple as a sanctuary, the Indian security forces launched a second assault, which involved a prolonged siege, but one marked by careful attention to the sentiments of religious authorities and by a deft public-relations strategy. The two contrasting episodes underscore how the same regime, under different circumstances, can cope with and respond to the requirements of a counterinsurgency operation in a sacred site.Less

The Golden Temple : A Tale of Two Sieges

C. Christine Fair

Published in print: 2008-09-29

This chapter examines two important operations waged by Indian security forces to counter Sikh insurgents operating in India's northern state of Punjab, from the late 1970s to the early 1990s. The first operation was a military as well as a public-relations debacle. The Indian Army had inadequate and flawed intelligence about the strength and capabilities of the insurgents who had entered and occupied the Golden Temple, and they failed to forge a viable public-relations strategy and ultimately used excessive force to prevail. Fortunately, the Indian state was capable of learning from its initial errors. When Sikh militants again attempted to use the temple as a sanctuary, the Indian security forces launched a second assault, which involved a prolonged siege, but one marked by careful attention to the sentiments of religious authorities and by a deft public-relations strategy. The two contrasting episodes underscore how the same regime, under different circumstances, can cope with and respond to the requirements of a counterinsurgency operation in a sacred site.

This chapter explores political riots in Jerusalem and the West Bank surrounding religious sites and the role played by the state in creating space for the riot and in responding to it. It argues ...
More

This chapter explores political riots in Jerusalem and the West Bank surrounding religious sites and the role played by the state in creating space for the riot and in responding to it. It argues that the riots serve a larger political agenda of aggravating the Israeli/Palestinian conflict and are intentionally manipulated by the political entities that have the capacity to either inflame or contain the level of violence. It further claims that popular religious violence serves as an informal political tool that is used by formal governing bodies. In Jerusalem, the chapter looks specifically at three incidents instigated by Israeli government action. These involve the opening of the 1996 Temple Mount tunnels, the 2000 “visit” by Ariel Sharon to the al-Aqsa, and the inclusion of three sites located in the occupied West Bank and Jerusalem in the Israeli heritage sites in 2010. In the West Bank there are four major “joint” religious sites and numerous minor ones. The four major sites are the Cave of the Patriarchs (Hebron), Rachel's Tomb (Bethlehem), Joseph Tomb's (Nablus), and Nebi Samuel (north of Jerusalem).Less

Choreographing Upheaval : The Politics of Sacred Sites in the West Bank

Elazar Barkan

Published in print: 2014-11-11

This chapter explores political riots in Jerusalem and the West Bank surrounding religious sites and the role played by the state in creating space for the riot and in responding to it. It argues that the riots serve a larger political agenda of aggravating the Israeli/Palestinian conflict and are intentionally manipulated by the political entities that have the capacity to either inflame or contain the level of violence. It further claims that popular religious violence serves as an informal political tool that is used by formal governing bodies. In Jerusalem, the chapter looks specifically at three incidents instigated by Israeli government action. These involve the opening of the 1996 Temple Mount tunnels, the 2000 “visit” by Ariel Sharon to the al-Aqsa, and the inclusion of three sites located in the occupied West Bank and Jerusalem in the Israeli heritage sites in 2010. In the West Bank there are four major “joint” religious sites and numerous minor ones. The four major sites are the Cave of the Patriarchs (Hebron), Rachel's Tomb (Bethlehem), Joseph Tomb's (Nablus), and Nebi Samuel (north of Jerusalem).

The only temple completed by Mormonism's founder, Joseph Smith Jr., the Kirtland Temple in Kirtland, Ohio, receives 30,000 Mormon pilgrims every year. Though the site is sacred to all Mormons, the ...
More

The only temple completed by Mormonism's founder, Joseph Smith Jr., the Kirtland Temple in Kirtland, Ohio, receives 30,000 Mormon pilgrims every year. Though the site is sacred to all Mormons, the temple's religious significance and the space itself are contested by rival Mormon denominations: its owner, the relatively liberal Community of Christ, and the larger Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. This biography of Kirtland Temple is set against the backdrop of religious rivalry. The two sides have long contested the temple's ownership, purpose, and significance in both the courts and Mormon literature. Yet members of each denomination have occasionally cooperated to establish periods of co-worship, host joint tours, and create friendships. The book uses the temple to build a model for understanding what he calls parallel pilgrimage—the set of dynamics of disagreement and alliance by religious rivals at a shared sacred site. At the same time, it illuminates social and intellectual changes in the two main branches of Mormonism since the 1830s, providing a much-needed history of the lesser-known Community of Christ.Less

Kirtland Temple : The Biography of a Shared Mormon Sacred Space

David J. Howlett

Published in print: 2014-05-15

The only temple completed by Mormonism's founder, Joseph Smith Jr., the Kirtland Temple in Kirtland, Ohio, receives 30,000 Mormon pilgrims every year. Though the site is sacred to all Mormons, the temple's religious significance and the space itself are contested by rival Mormon denominations: its owner, the relatively liberal Community of Christ, and the larger Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. This biography of Kirtland Temple is set against the backdrop of religious rivalry. The two sides have long contested the temple's ownership, purpose, and significance in both the courts and Mormon literature. Yet members of each denomination have occasionally cooperated to establish periods of co-worship, host joint tours, and create friendships. The book uses the temple to build a model for understanding what he calls parallel pilgrimage—the set of dynamics of disagreement and alliance by religious rivals at a shared sacred site. At the same time, it illuminates social and intellectual changes in the two main branches of Mormonism since the 1830s, providing a much-needed history of the lesser-known Community of Christ.

This chapter focuses on the Holy Sepulchre or Church of the Anastasis, the “mother church” of Christianity, in an attempt to shift the analytic logic away from the identities of communities that ...
More

This chapter focuses on the Holy Sepulchre or Church of the Anastasis, the “mother church” of Christianity, in an attempt to shift the analytic logic away from the identities of communities that cohabit sites toward institutions that attempt to own, or at least control, those sites. Pilgrims and celebrants in Jerusalem's holy places come to the places as guests; the Anastasis, like all of the other sites falling under the regimen of the status quo agreements, is not a parish church and hence has neither parishioners nor parochial duties. The situation is very different for the clergy affiliated with the monasteries of the authorities who hold possessory rights over the status quo holy places. The three major communities within the Church of the Holy Sepulchre—the Greek Orthodox, the Latin Franciscans, and the Armenian Orthodox—all claim exclusive praedominium to [preeminence over] the places they believe they own. However, such claims are always mediated through structures of state power, and these shape choreographies of conflict or of sharing.Less

The Politics of Ownership : State, Governance, and the Status Quo in the Church of the Anastasis (Holy Sepulchre)

Glenn Bowman

Published in print: 2014-11-11

This chapter focuses on the Holy Sepulchre or Church of the Anastasis, the “mother church” of Christianity, in an attempt to shift the analytic logic away from the identities of communities that cohabit sites toward institutions that attempt to own, or at least control, those sites. Pilgrims and celebrants in Jerusalem's holy places come to the places as guests; the Anastasis, like all of the other sites falling under the regimen of the status quo agreements, is not a parish church and hence has neither parishioners nor parochial duties. The situation is very different for the clergy affiliated with the monasteries of the authorities who hold possessory rights over the status quo holy places. The three major communities within the Church of the Holy Sepulchre—the Greek Orthodox, the Latin Franciscans, and the Armenian Orthodox—all claim exclusive praedominium to [preeminence over] the places they believe they own. However, such claims are always mediated through structures of state power, and these shape choreographies of conflict or of sharing.

This chapter examines religious sites in Cyprus where the everyday practices of “peaceful coexistence” always threatened to break down. It considers three basic types of sites: spaces of (temporary) ...
More

This chapter examines religious sites in Cyprus where the everyday practices of “peaceful coexistence” always threatened to break down. It considers three basic types of sites: spaces of (temporary) submission, where members of both communities knew of and believed in the efficacious power associated with the site, but where the site clearly “belonged” to one community and its clergy; contested shared spaces, where members of both communities believed in the power of the site but where there was an unresolved dispute, usually based on competing accounts of the site's origins, over which community could legitimately claim authority; and economic spaces, or those sites believed by only one community to have efficacy but which may have been tolerated by the other community for pragmatic reasons, usually the economic benefit that their presence brought. The chapter concludes by using these sites to reflect on how the variety of practices and attitudes toward them can help us think about debates over tolerance and its varieties.Less

Three Ways of Sharing the Sacred : Choreographies of Coexistence in Cyprus

Mete Hatay

Published in print: 2014-11-11

This chapter examines religious sites in Cyprus where the everyday practices of “peaceful coexistence” always threatened to break down. It considers three basic types of sites: spaces of (temporary) submission, where members of both communities knew of and believed in the efficacious power associated with the site, but where the site clearly “belonged” to one community and its clergy; contested shared spaces, where members of both communities believed in the power of the site but where there was an unresolved dispute, usually based on competing accounts of the site's origins, over which community could legitimately claim authority; and economic spaces, or those sites believed by only one community to have efficacy but which may have been tolerated by the other community for pragmatic reasons, usually the economic benefit that their presence brought. The chapter concludes by using these sites to reflect on how the variety of practices and attitudes toward them can help us think about debates over tolerance and its varieties.

This chapter discusses how sacred sites are also built through cooperation. At sites of parallel pilgrimage, people may negotiate with others and form alliances that allow them access to otherwise ...
More

This chapter discusses how sacred sites are also built through cooperation. At sites of parallel pilgrimage, people may negotiate with others and form alliances that allow them access to otherwise denied resources. In addition, people who form alliances benefit from a multiplier effect—meaning the resources of a group are greater than the sum of its parts. Group membership carries with it a form of power, or social capital that can only be established and maintained by “reacknowledgement of proximity”—that is, “relations of proximity in physical (geographical) space or even in economic and social space.” The chapter then looks at the changing proximal relationships in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints around the Kirtland Temple.Less

New Shrines and New Capital, 1990–2012

David J. Howlett

Published in print: 2014-05-15

This chapter discusses how sacred sites are also built through cooperation. At sites of parallel pilgrimage, people may negotiate with others and form alliances that allow them access to otherwise denied resources. In addition, people who form alliances benefit from a multiplier effect—meaning the resources of a group are greater than the sum of its parts. Group membership carries with it a form of power, or social capital that can only be established and maintained by “reacknowledgement of proximity”—that is, “relations of proximity in physical (geographical) space or even in economic and social space.” The chapter then looks at the changing proximal relationships in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints around the Kirtland Temple.

This chapter presents a comparative study of the Turkish shrine complexes of Hacı Bektaş Veli in Hacıbektaş and Mevlana Jalal ad-Din Rumi in Konya. Both sites were major focal points of so-called ...
More

This chapter presents a comparative study of the Turkish shrine complexes of Hacı Bektaş Veli in Hacıbektaş and Mevlana Jalal ad-Din Rumi in Konya. Both sites were major focal points of so-called heterodox or Sufi practices during the Ottoman period, both were closed by the early Republican government in 1925, and both were later reopened as museums. It is argued that the transformation of the Hacı Bektaş and Mevlana sites into museums actually manifests several forms of control by the state. In certain ways the state protects and preserves the complexes, but in others it limits and even prohibits the ritual use of the shrines by non-Sunni Muslims while subtly facilitating Sunni practices within them.Less

Secularizing the Unsecularizable : A Comparative Study of the Haci Bektaş and Mevlana Museums in Turkey

Rabia HarmanşahTuğba Tanyeri-ErdemirRobert M. Hayden

Published in print: 2014-11-11

This chapter presents a comparative study of the Turkish shrine complexes of Hacı Bektaş Veli in Hacıbektaş and Mevlana Jalal ad-Din Rumi in Konya. Both sites were major focal points of so-called heterodox or Sufi practices during the Ottoman period, both were closed by the early Republican government in 1925, and both were later reopened as museums. It is argued that the transformation of the Hacı Bektaş and Mevlana sites into museums actually manifests several forms of control by the state. In certain ways the state protects and preserves the complexes, but in others it limits and even prohibits the ritual use of the shrines by non-Sunni Muslims while subtly facilitating Sunni practices within them.

This concluding chapter argues that individuals “build” sacred sites through varied discourse on what a site means. Indeed, each pilgrim and each site guide are best seen as building the Kirtland ...
More

This concluding chapter argues that individuals “build” sacred sites through varied discourse on what a site means. Indeed, each pilgrim and each site guide are best seen as building the Kirtland Temple and contributing to its collective meaning. Despite the relatively fixed location of the site, the agents who build the Kirtland Temple are actually in the process of constructing confessional and ideological sites rather than a singular site, temples rather than a singular temple. The physical temple itself simply provides the finite set of terms out of which groups have created many different variations. As such, the physical site itself has become a platform for improvised ecclesiastical performance and contestation. Moreover, various Mormon groups use the temple as a place to shape, transform, and justify their particular group commitments.Less

Conclusion : Parallel Pilgrimages, Parallel Temples

David J. Howlett

Published in print: 2014-05-15

This concluding chapter argues that individuals “build” sacred sites through varied discourse on what a site means. Indeed, each pilgrim and each site guide are best seen as building the Kirtland Temple and contributing to its collective meaning. Despite the relatively fixed location of the site, the agents who build the Kirtland Temple are actually in the process of constructing confessional and ideological sites rather than a singular site, temples rather than a singular temple. The physical temple itself simply provides the finite set of terms out of which groups have created many different variations. As such, the physical site itself has become a platform for improvised ecclesiastical performance and contestation. Moreover, various Mormon groups use the temple as a place to shape, transform, and justify their particular group commitments.

This introductory chapter provides an overview of “parallel pilgrimage”—the dynamics of cooperation and contestation by rival religious groups at a common pilgrimage site. Contestation, whether ...
More

This introductory chapter provides an overview of “parallel pilgrimage”—the dynamics of cooperation and contestation by rival religious groups at a common pilgrimage site. Contestation, whether covert or overt, often charges the shared sacred site with a heightened importance since the shrine is seen as a scarce resource, in danger of appropriation by a religious other. In this way, a contested sacred site may become a supra-sacred site. The Kirtland Temple, a site owned by a minority—a moderately liberal faith community—and patronized mainly by a much larger, conservative religious community, serves as an opportune case study for parallel pilgrimage and its attendant rituals of cooperation and contestation. Beyond the relatively liberal Community of Christ and the more conservative Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, at least a half dozen smaller Mormon groups also currently patronize the sacred shrine.Less

Introduction : The Kirtland Temple as a Parallel Pilgrimage

David J. Howlett

Published in print: 2014-05-15

This introductory chapter provides an overview of “parallel pilgrimage”—the dynamics of cooperation and contestation by rival religious groups at a common pilgrimage site. Contestation, whether covert or overt, often charges the shared sacred site with a heightened importance since the shrine is seen as a scarce resource, in danger of appropriation by a religious other. In this way, a contested sacred site may become a supra-sacred site. The Kirtland Temple, a site owned by a minority—a moderately liberal faith community—and patronized mainly by a much larger, conservative religious community, serves as an opportune case study for parallel pilgrimage and its attendant rituals of cooperation and contestation. Beyond the relatively liberal Community of Christ and the more conservative Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, at least a half dozen smaller Mormon groups also currently patronize the sacred shrine.

This chapter focuses on the city of Nazareth in order to illustrate the theoretical and practical implications of ethnoreligious conflict among Arab Palestinian citizens in Israel that arises out of ...
More

This chapter focuses on the city of Nazareth in order to illustrate the theoretical and practical implications of ethnoreligious conflict among Arab Palestinian citizens in Israel that arises out of competing claims over the nature, essence, and representation of a holy place. It argues that conflict over holy sites is a manifestation of stakeholder competition over political power and socioeconomic resources. Multifaceted conflicts between stakeholders impact the ethnoreligious development of the city by overdetermining its character and the way in which it is perceived at local, national, and international levels. The chapter begins by discussing the theoretical role that holy sites play in shaping the sociocultural imagery, political structure, and representational function of cities, followed by a general historical review of the Nazareth region. It then describes how conflict over holy sites contributes to the deterioration of relations between different ethnic and religious minority groups in the city. This is followed by a discussion of the role of outsiders (national and international stakeholders) in aggravating a conflict and the ways in which the locals (domestic stakeholders) benefit from the conflict.Less

The Impact of Conflicts over Holy Sites on City Images and Landscapes : The Case of Nazareth

Rassem Khamaisi

Published in print: 2014-11-11

This chapter focuses on the city of Nazareth in order to illustrate the theoretical and practical implications of ethnoreligious conflict among Arab Palestinian citizens in Israel that arises out of competing claims over the nature, essence, and representation of a holy place. It argues that conflict over holy sites is a manifestation of stakeholder competition over political power and socioeconomic resources. Multifaceted conflicts between stakeholders impact the ethnoreligious development of the city by overdetermining its character and the way in which it is perceived at local, national, and international levels. The chapter begins by discussing the theoretical role that holy sites play in shaping the sociocultural imagery, political structure, and representational function of cities, followed by a general historical review of the Nazareth region. It then describes how conflict over holy sites contributes to the deterioration of relations between different ethnic and religious minority groups in the city. This is followed by a discussion of the role of outsiders (national and international stakeholders) in aggravating a conflict and the ways in which the locals (domestic stakeholders) benefit from the conflict.

As the international art market globalizes the indigenous image, it changes its identity, status, value, and purpose in local and larger contexts. Focusing on a school of Australian Aboriginal ...
More

As the international art market globalizes the indigenous image, it changes its identity, status, value, and purpose in local and larger contexts. Focusing on a school of Australian Aboriginal painting that has become popular in the contemporary art world, the book traces the influence of cultural exchanges on art, the self, and attitudes toward the other. Aboriginal acrylic painting, produced by indigenous women artists of the Australian Desert, bears a superficial resemblance to abstract expressionism and is often read as such by viewers. Yet to see this art only through a Western lens is to miss its unique ontology, logics of sensation, and rich politics and religion. The book explores the culture that produces these paintings and connects their aesthetic to the brutal environmental and economic realities of the painters. From here, it travels to urban locales, observing museums and department stores as they traffic interchangeably in art and commodities. The book ties the history of these desert works to global acts of genocide and dispossession. Rethinking the value of the artistic image in the global market and different interpretations of the sacred, it considers photojournalism, ecotourism, and other sacred sites of the Western subject, investigating the intersection of modern art and postmodern culture. The book ultimately challenges the primacy of the “European gaze” and its fascination with sacred cultures, constructing a more balanced intercultural dialogue that deemphasizes the aesthetic of the real championed by Western philosophy.Less

Sacred Exchanges : Images in Global Context

Robyn Ferrell

Published in print: 2012-03-27

As the international art market globalizes the indigenous image, it changes its identity, status, value, and purpose in local and larger contexts. Focusing on a school of Australian Aboriginal painting that has become popular in the contemporary art world, the book traces the influence of cultural exchanges on art, the self, and attitudes toward the other. Aboriginal acrylic painting, produced by indigenous women artists of the Australian Desert, bears a superficial resemblance to abstract expressionism and is often read as such by viewers. Yet to see this art only through a Western lens is to miss its unique ontology, logics of sensation, and rich politics and religion. The book explores the culture that produces these paintings and connects their aesthetic to the brutal environmental and economic realities of the painters. From here, it travels to urban locales, observing museums and department stores as they traffic interchangeably in art and commodities. The book ties the history of these desert works to global acts of genocide and dispossession. Rethinking the value of the artistic image in the global market and different interpretations of the sacred, it considers photojournalism, ecotourism, and other sacred sites of the Western subject, investigating the intersection of modern art and postmodern culture. The book ultimately challenges the primacy of the “European gaze” and its fascination with sacred cultures, constructing a more balanced intercultural dialogue that deemphasizes the aesthetic of the real championed by Western philosophy.

In this chapter, I explore shamans’ relationships with the nature of the high north. How is nature included in their practices and how does the use of nature relate to the legitimizing of modern Sámi ...
More

In this chapter, I explore shamans’ relationships with the nature of the high north. How is nature included in their practices and how does the use of nature relate to the legitimizing of modern Sámi shamanism? I base the discussion on the view that landscapes are constituted as meaningful entities through events. However, different experiences, interests, and agendas make the same landscape evolve with different meanings. To shed light on these issues, I start by putting in context some of the background for the interest in nature and landscape that is expressed by the shamans I have interviewed and that can be related to the interest in nature among modern Pagans as well as within the New Age spiritualties.Less

The Power of Nature in the High North

Trude Fonneland

Published in print: 2017-10-26

In this chapter, I explore shamans’ relationships with the nature of the high north. How is nature included in their practices and how does the use of nature relate to the legitimizing of modern Sámi shamanism? I base the discussion on the view that landscapes are constituted as meaningful entities through events. However, different experiences, interests, and agendas make the same landscape evolve with different meanings. To shed light on these issues, I start by putting in context some of the background for the interest in nature and landscape that is expressed by the shamans I have interviewed and that can be related to the interest in nature among modern Pagans as well as within the New Age spiritualties.

For more than twenty-five years, the Women of the Western Wall (WoW) have been leading a groundbreaking struggle, attempting to gain permission from Israeli authorities to pray according to their ...
More

For more than twenty-five years, the Women of the Western Wall (WoW) have been leading a groundbreaking struggle, attempting to gain permission from Israeli authorities to pray according to their manner at Judaism’s holiest prayer site, the Western Wall. The WoW’s determined activism has gained widespread media coverage. This book is the first comprehensive academic study of their struggle, and it seeks to place it in a comparative and theoretical context. It explores various dimensions of the group’s struggle, including an analysis of the women’s attempts to modify Jewish Orthodox mainstream religious practice from within and invest it with a new, egalitarian content; a comprehensive survey of the numerous legal rulings of various courts about the case; and considerations of the broader political and social significance of the WoW struggle. This analysis in turn makes it possible to address several wider questions in religion-state relations: How should governments manage religious plurality within their borders? How should governments respond to the requests of minorities—in this case, religious women—that conflict with the mainstream interpretation of a given tradition? How should governments manage disputed sacred spaces located in the public sphere? Women of the Wall: Navigating Religion in Sacred Sites critically explores several theories of religion-state relations, and concludes that a context-sensitive privatization is the most adequate governmental response, for the WoW struggle as well as for similar current religious conflicts over sacred sites and public spaces.Less

Women of the Wall : Navigating Religion in Sacred Sites

Yuval JobaniNahshon Perez

Published in print: 2017-08-03

For more than twenty-five years, the Women of the Western Wall (WoW) have been leading a groundbreaking struggle, attempting to gain permission from Israeli authorities to pray according to their manner at Judaism’s holiest prayer site, the Western Wall. The WoW’s determined activism has gained widespread media coverage. This book is the first comprehensive academic study of their struggle, and it seeks to place it in a comparative and theoretical context. It explores various dimensions of the group’s struggle, including an analysis of the women’s attempts to modify Jewish Orthodox mainstream religious practice from within and invest it with a new, egalitarian content; a comprehensive survey of the numerous legal rulings of various courts about the case; and considerations of the broader political and social significance of the WoW struggle. This analysis in turn makes it possible to address several wider questions in religion-state relations: How should governments manage religious plurality within their borders? How should governments respond to the requests of minorities—in this case, religious women—that conflict with the mainstream interpretation of a given tradition? How should governments manage disputed sacred spaces located in the public sphere? Women of the Wall: Navigating Religion in Sacred Sites critically explores several theories of religion-state relations, and concludes that a context-sensitive privatization is the most adequate governmental response, for the WoW struggle as well as for similar current religious conflicts over sacred sites and public spaces.

The chapter opens with a categorization of the Western Wall as a “thick site.” Echoing Geertz’s “thick-description” approach, this new concept denotes a site typically but not necessarily religious, ...
More

The chapter opens with a categorization of the Western Wall as a “thick site.” Echoing Geertz’s “thick-description” approach, this new concept denotes a site typically but not necessarily religious, which is loaded with different and incompatible meanings attributed to it by different agents. From these agents’ perspective, such meanings are highly significant, and consequently, these sites are irreplaceable. This conceptualization elucidates the most important characteristics of contested sacred sites, enabling a classification of the struggle of the Women of the Wall within a larger “class” of similar struggles and indicating possible solutions. Basic concepts that are necessary for illustrating the contours of the discussion are defined: “state,” “religion,” and “public sphere.” The chapter concludes with a detailed discussion of the contextual research methodology chosen for this study.Less

Laying the Groundworks : Concepts, Definitions, and Methodology

Yuval JobaniNahshon Perez

Published in print: 2017-08-03

The chapter opens with a categorization of the Western Wall as a “thick site.” Echoing Geertz’s “thick-description” approach, this new concept denotes a site typically but not necessarily religious, which is loaded with different and incompatible meanings attributed to it by different agents. From these agents’ perspective, such meanings are highly significant, and consequently, these sites are irreplaceable. This conceptualization elucidates the most important characteristics of contested sacred sites, enabling a classification of the struggle of the Women of the Wall within a larger “class” of similar struggles and indicating possible solutions. Basic concepts that are necessary for illustrating the contours of the discussion are defined: “state,” “religion,” and “public sphere.” The chapter concludes with a detailed discussion of the contextual research methodology chosen for this study.